Scripture
Amnon had a friend named Jonadab, who was the son of David’s brother Shimeah. Jonadab always knew how to get what he wanted.
~2 Samuel 13:3, CEV
Quote
There are seven kinds of people the LORD does not like and one of them is the person who stirs up trouble in a family.
~Solomon
Jonadab was a first cousin to Amnon, David oldest son and according to the CEV {13:21}, Amnon was David’s favorite son. Of course Bathsheba, time and circumstances changed all of this. I don’t believe Amnon was actually in love with his half-sister Tamar but he wanted her so bad that he made himself sick. Jonadab was an opportunist and he saw a chance to fan the flame. He was probably sick of seeing Amnon pine over his incestuous love affair and so he put some evil thoughts in Amnon’s head. “Aren’t you a prince?” He said to Amnon, “Should you be feeling sorry for yourself with you are the son of a king.” Jonadab counseled Amnon to be pro-active, to put a plan in place so that he could get what he wanted. I would call this plan a scheme because it involved deceit. Amnon pretended to be sick and hungry when he was neither. He lied to his father and then deceived and raped his sister. To make bad matters worse: after raping her, he had his servants throw her out into the streets; to make her disgrace public.
Absalom, her full brother {same mom and dad} happened to see her in her shame and distress. He was angry and he began to plot the death of his half brother Amnon. You know the story: it is the domino effect. Jonadab the trouble maker put Amnon up to lying to David and take what he wanted from his sister. This lead to Tamar’s shame and disgrace which lead to Absalom’s hatred of Amnon, which lead to Absalom’s plot to kill Amnon, which lead to Absalom’s exile, which lead to Absalom’s resentment of his father, which lead to Absalom’s rebellion, which lead to David’s shame and embarrassment and eventually Absalom’s death which leads to David’s grief. All of this shame and sorrow because of one trouble maker. Only God knows how many died because of Jonadab’s stink stirring. Blessed are the peace makers, they are more like Christ than anyone else.
Moses could have enjoyed his ministry had it not been for the Jonadabs. Every nation has them; every congregation has them and every family has them.
Well, I am having a hard time getting use to the new WORD PRESS changes but maybe we will get better with time. I do have some control over the font which I did not have before. I am sure there are other advantages but I haven’t found them.
Traci’s brother law is named Brian Vaughn and they live near Snead. Brian’s mom was killed in the wreck and it was his step-dad who was critically injured. If I understood Traci correctly, Brian’s father also passed away on an Easter Sunday some years ago. It is a sad, sad story: pray for Brian and Kim.
Roger Burcham called first thing yesterday morning: His younger brother passed away. He had been sick for some time but this was a bit of a shock. He had something similar to CF. I have no arrangements on either at this time